Saturday, December 10, 2011

Window Maintenance

To access defragmenter open “My Computer” and right click on the drive to be defragmented

Select “properties”

Then select “Tools”

Then select “Defragment Now”

Click “analyze” button. This will analyze the amount of fragmentation.

A report indicating if defragmenter needs to be run will be displayed

Defragmenter can still be run, although the report says it is not required

When complete a report can be viewed by selecting “View Report”

After viewing the report the utility can be closed. As part of a regular routine, defragmenter should be run on all drives once a fortnight.

Disk Clean Up

To access Disk Cleanup open “My Computer” and right click the drive to be cleaned then select “Properties”

Next select “Disk Cleanup”

Tick the items to be removed

Select “Yes” to confirm deletion of the files

The files will then be removed from the hard drive

The space is now returned to the hard drive. Click “OK” to finish

Favourites

To access your favourites open “Internet Explorer”

When Internet Explorer opens select “Favourites”

When selected, a drop down list of all favourites will be displayed

Select “Organise Favourites”

Firstly we will delete an item that is no longer required

Select the item, then click “delete”

Select “Yes” to confirm deletion

The item will been sent to the recycle bin.

Select “Create Folder” to start organising favourites

Select “Rename” and give the new folder a name i.e. “computers”

There are two ways to move items in to folders.

Select an item then click “Move to Folder”

Now select the folder and the item is moved into the folder.

OR use drag and drop

Left click the item and hold, then drag to the folder

The black line indicates the position where the item will be placed

When in the correct place release the mouse button, the item has now been moved to its new folder

With folders created, and items moved, the favourites is now easier to navigate.

Select a folder to view its contents

Files and Folders

In this scenario we have a folder called “storage” containing different files – double click on the folder “storage”.

Inside the folder three files can be seen

Below is a graphical representation of how this file/folder structure is organise

Once inside the folder the files can be viewed in different formats depending on your preference – Click on “View” and select “Thumbnails”

Here the files are viewed as thumbnails – again click on “View”

Next select “List”

Here the files are viewed as a list format – click “View”

Next select “Details”

Here the files are viewed in the details format which gives a more descriptive view and properties of each file – Click on “View”

Select “Arrange Icons by” and choose “Name”

Here the files are arranged alphabetically by order of name. Click “View”

Select “Arrange Icons by” and choose “Type”

Here the files are arranged by type i.e. all Word files will be grouped together, all PowerPoint together etc – again click “View”

Select “Arrange Icons by” and choose “Modified”

Here the files are displayed in date and time order of when they last were edited.

Next select “View” then “Arrange Icons by” and “Show in Groups”

Now the files are displayed alphabetically, regardless of file type, this is particularly useful when large numbers of files are stored in a folder.

Another way of viewing files and folders is through “Windows Explorer”. To locate select “Start”

Select “All Programs”

Select “Accessories” and next “Windows Explorer”

From the left-hand pane the folder “storage” can be found. Then double click

Once open the files can be viewed in the right hand window

Microsoft have also provided a convenient location for you to store your files, this is known as the “My Documents” folder – click on “Start”

Select “My Documents”- Here a drop down view of the contents of the folder can be seen

For a more detailed view – right click “My Documents” and select Open”

The contents can now be viewed more clearly and in detail.

Another useful folder that is provided is the “My Pictures” folder – click “Start” and select “My Pictures”

Here your electronic photo album can be viewed

Here the pictures can be viewed in the same way as normal files but with some extra features- click “View” and select “Filmstrip”, photos can be selected and be viewed in more detail in the centre of the screen

Another added feature is the “Pictures Taken On” view, this allows photos to be organised by date & time from when the original photos were taken from a digital camera or photo camera

The easiest way to view your photo album is by the slide show as this method allows you to view pictures full screen without any user intervention – In the left hand pane click “View as a slide show”

And the slide show will begin….

….and will carry on automatically

The slide show can then be stopped by placing the mouse cursor over the screen and clicking on the cross in the top right hand corner

Recycle Bin

How to recover a file from the recycle bin e.g. The “my music folder” will be deleted and then recovered

Right click the “my music” folder and select “delete”

Select yes to confirm deletion

The file has now been sent to the recycle bin. To recover this file, Right click the recycle bin and select “open”.

Highlight (single left click) the file to be recovered

Note the task box on the left changes from “restore all items” to “restore this item”. With the file highlighted select “restore this item”

When clicked the file is restored to its original location.

With the file recovered, the recycle bin can be emptied to remove the unwanted files. Right click the recycle bin and select “empty recycle bin”

Select yes to confirm deletion of the files

The recycle bin is now empty; the bin should be emptied on a regular basis, once per week, as up to 10% of the hard disk space is allocated for storage of deleted files.

A lot of valuable disk space can be saved by routinely emptying the recycle bin. The recycle bin should be emptied before running defragmenter so free space can be reused.

Scan Disk

To access scandisk open “My Computer” and right click on the drive that you want scanned. Select “Properties”

From the tools tab under “Error Checking” select “Check Now”

Two options are available to check

the file system

or the disk

Click “Start” to begin Phase 1.

After phase 1 “file system check” has completed click “OK” to finish,

Then start the disk check by ticking “Scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors.”

Then click “Start”

This is a two phase operation and may take sometime to complete

When complete click “OK” to finish

And “OK” to close Scandisk.

Like Defragmenter, Scandisk should be run on a regular basis to ensure the file system and hard disk are maintained to their optimum.